It is now the 28th. I still can't login to hotmail.com or mail.live.com .... I love the integration of my calendars, contact lists and email (2 facebook accounts, 3 m.hotmail.com (exchange) accounts, etc.) .... but webOS mail still does not support HTML email !!!!

On my Pre Plus, I can access mail.live.com (or hotmail.com or mail.msn.com) and view my html mail, SkyDrive, and the mobile versions of Web Office.

I certainly think an update should be here now. Regarding the browser freezing, perhaps this is the 'network not found' error? I have to restart my TP every day. I'll bet the help lines are very busy. Are there instructions included with the TP on restarting it to get internet to work? Dont think so.

it is a mystery why the tcp stack, or the wi-Fi device\library whatever has to be restarted constantly. Yr basic ipad user would be screaming bloody murder.

I used to see this with my PrPrPr$275$;, $but$$only$$after$$weeks$$of$$use$.

You're joking, arn't you? Forgive me for being a bit literal, but the only value of a tablet is to be able to browse the web more conveniently than being tied to a chair to use a desktop or a tiny screen to use a phone. We actually don't need most of the apps if we could get really solid access to the web.

E.g. I've not installed a mail reader on my windows PC for the last 2 releases of Windows. I use mail.live.com ...website version, not the live mail download... so that all my mail folders/accounts/contacts/calendars are automatically syncronized between the half dozen PCs I have in my home ... and my Palm Pre! ...and the html email doesn't require an extra step to see. ...and SkyDrive and Web Office gives me the capacity to create and edit Office documents.

Yet I cannot even login to mail.live.com (or hotmail.com) due to a bug (presumably) in the webOS browser for TouchPad .... I can login and use this site from my Pre Plus.

On my wife's Color Nook, I have used the built in Android browser and TWO other 3rd party browsers, and ALL 3 support drudgereport.com and mail.live.com without problems.

...and I could buy 2 Color Nooks for the price of my TouchPad.

Get with it HP! You have an EXCELLENT opportunity to use the integration between phone, pad, desktop and cloud to chart an entirely new advance in integrated computing for the home and enterprise... but not if you allow differences between webOS on platforms to fragment the community and make a joke of the idea of multiplatform integration.

Bureaucracies often loose sight of the "big picture" .... HP is beginning to look succumb to the "too big to see the big picture" problem that destroys so many good ideas.

We don't need dozens of apps competing with each other such that no two users or platforms have the same set of resources ... jobs don't get done when you spend all your time figuring if app X on device Y is compatible with app Q on device Z ... and you really havn't found the app in the catalog yet(!) among the clutter!

Sorry to sound off, but I bought 2 Pre Plus phones last August with the assurance that an OTA upgrade would fix the various shortcomings I quickly identified.... I waited a month, a quarter, 6 months and then told there would be no upgrade of the Pre Plus.

I bought the TouchPad on 7/6, assured that the OTA upgrade would happen within 10 days for sure.

This is the big issue, to me. I get that it's a G1 product. I'm willing to make some allowances, because of that. All I really need is two things: 1) the core featureset (Office editing) promised out of the box and 2) something to assuage concerns based on empty promises from Palm, which means actually pushing a substantive update this week.

It isn't about demanding a "perfect" gadget. It's about making a comfortable choice between a device (iPad) that does a lot of things very well, but has some significant shortcomings (multitasking, the Apple ecosystem, closed vendors) and one that promises to address these "shortly" but there is no proof that the word "shortly" means the same to them as to me.

They set a date (end of month) for a "significant" update. It's a test, in a way of whether I like the direction they're headed. You can argue that maybe I shouldn't have gotten a TouchPad, yet, because it didn't have the features I wanted. You might be right. I knew it didn't have Office editing, but HP had said, effectively "Our bad. It'll be fixed ASAP, along with a few other major complaints." So, I bought one on faith in a multibillion dollar company that said they were doubling down on the platform. Granted, I picked it up at a place that gave me 30 days to test that faith, but I don't think that's unreasonable, especially since I didn't expect to return it (Amazon was also the best price).

The other reason I bought the TouchPad now is because of the $50 rebate HP is offering through the end of the month. That is another deadline of their own devising. If HP wasn't up to meeting the challenge of the end of the month, they shouldn't have set that as the measure twice. If Quick Office editing comes through, I'll almost certainly be staying with my TouchPad. If it doesn't, I'm going to return my TouchPad and either write it off as a great idea that just didn't work out or check back in a couple months to see how life is going and whether I was just too early of an adopter for my current comfort level.

I've got both a hotmail and a live accounted connected up to my TouchPad and its all working. I'm also able to read HTML emails, strange that you're not

edit: No HTML via hotmail or live (but you already knew that) but do get it via EAS

I pointed out in my original posting that I have multiple hotmail accounts integrated via webOS mail, calendar and contacts, update and synced via the eXchange interface to live/hotmail (i.e. m.hotmail.com).

What DOES NOT WORK is simply loging into hotmail.com via the web browser. The brower attempts multiple times in 10 seconds or so to complete the login to the mail service before giving up and going to a page on the hotmail site where they suggest I may need to create an account ... yet I obviously have multiple accounts working via webOS mail and on multiple PCs.

If you CAN create a hotmail account and login to it from the webOS web browser.... PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

With a working live.com account, I don't need Office (or QuickOffice or Box, etc.) on my phone or pad or PC to create, edit, view and store on the web (live.com/SkyDrive) word, excell, powerpoint or notepad files. ...I simply want to do this on my TouchPad.

If YOU can, please lets talk via email to diagnose what I'm doing wrong. ??? possibly I don't need to use the exchange (m.hotmail.com) interface ??? Your are using IMAP and getting calendar and contacts lists synced ???

It is now the 28th. I still can't login to hotmail.com or mail.live.com .... I love the integration of my calendars, contact lists and email (2 facebook accounts, 3 m.hotmail.com (exchange) accounts, etc.) .... but webOS mail still does not support HTML email !!!!

This has been discussed elsewhere, but webOS mail client most certainly does support HTML e-mail. I get it on my Veer, previously my Pre, and the TP.

Your problem is the exchange version hotmail is currently using. Based on the version of exchange being used, HTML e-mail is not officially supported.

I love physical keyboards... but there is two devices that would make me consider a slab, one is something running a full version of Open webOS. The other is an iPhone!!!! HA HA just kidding (about the iPhone that is)...

You're joking, arn't you? Forgive me for being a bit literal, but the only value of a tablet is to be able to browse the web more conveniently than being tied to a chair to use a desktop or a tiny screen to use a phone. We actually don't need most of the apps if we could get really solid access to the web...

That may be the only value to you, but that's not what this tablet (and OS) was designed to do.

You may find it more convenient to log in to several different web-based email sites to check your mail, but this OS was designed around a totally different concept - that being that the one email application accesses all of your email.

Hotmail (and I suspect Live Mail as well) has frequently had problems with non-IE browsers, because the interface is targeted for IE.

I'm not even sure if this is a bug in the browser, or just an incompability (Hotmail specifically lists the browsers they know they're compatible with, and ours isn't on it).

Either way, I doubt that fixing HTML issues for web based mail systems is going to be their top priority. I suspect (and hope) they're more interested in making Synergy and their email client to work smoothly with the mail providers.

...
They set a date (end of month) for a "significant" update. It's a test, in a way of whether I like the direction they're headed. You can argue that maybe I shouldn't have gotten a TouchPad, yet, because it didn't have the features I wanted. You might be right. I knew it didn't have Office editing, but HP had said, effectively "Our bad. It'll be fixed ASAP, along with a few other major complaints." So, I bought one on faith in a multibillion dollar company that said they were doubling down on the platform. Granted, I picked it up at a place that gave me 30 days to test that faith, but I don't think that's unreasonable, especially since I didn't expect to return it (Amazon was also the best price).
...

Well put! (And I mean the entire post, I only quoted a portion for brevity).

Seriously, I don't see a single thing wrong with this attitude. Personally, I'm a bit more lenient, but I understand completely your reasons, if they don't come through as they said they would.

3.0.2 is on GSM TouchPads, so there is no base for concern that update wouldn't come to WiFi TouchPad. There is probably lots of reasons why they didn't pushed update yet and I don't want to speculate. If update fix restarts, freezing and memory leaks that is enough for first update.

It doesn't become vaporware unless it really does not exist. I can even buy someone arguing vaporware if it is not present when promised. However, the update was promised by the end of the month...according to my calendar there is still a couple more days in July. The update is clearly coming (several folks have posted on WebOSRoundup that they got it a couple days ago, the Singapore launch announcement shows the updated version, etc.). We also have had a number of confirmations by developers that the update has been worked on for months.

Now I would prefer to get the update ASAP, just like the next guy, but I think 1) that arguments of "vaporware" are not only premature, but clearly not applicable, and 2) that I'd rather HP got it right and hold off even a few more days, then send me something that still isn't quite right. The ONLY reason the update wouldn't come by the end of the month would be because its not ready. HP knows they will take a PRPRPR$hit$$for$$that$, $so$$any$$decision$$to$$hold$$off$$release$$of$$the$$update$$could$$only$$be$$to$$get$$it$$right$. $I$$give$$them$$the$$benefit$$of$$the$$doubt$$on$$measuring$$out$$the$$cost$-$benefits$$of$$releasing$$the$$update$$on$$time$$vs$. $not$. $In$$any$$event$, $due$$to$$the$$evidence$$mentioned$$above$, $even$$if$$it$$is$$late$, $it$$won$'$t$$be$$late$$by$$much$$IMHO$.

We will just have to wait - I'd rather it was a clean, well tested patch than a buggy piece of rubbish. Right now the TP isn't perfect but it is still a great piece of kit - a couple evenings ago I had a play with a couple of Android devices and a BB Playpad - and they aren't perfect either. I have to be honest and say that aside from the poxy 7" screen the Playpad was quite impressive.

I was thinking the same damn thing... thought maybe I was wrong though...

I love physical keyboards... but there is two devices that would make me consider a slab, one is something running a full version of Open webOS. The other is an iPhone!!!! HA HA just kidding (about the iPhone that is)...

Well put! (And I mean the entire post, I only quoted a portion for brevity).

Seriously, I don't see a single thing wrong with this attitude. Personally, I'm a bit more lenient, but I understand completely your reasons, if they don't come through as they said they would.

I'd probably be a bit more lenient, too, except we just moved and got hammered with substantively greater losses on the old house than expected. The only reason I'm even considering a tablet, at the moment is because I've had $600 sitting in a separate account since February, specifically for the purpose. Between moving into a more meeting/document heavy position and finding the TouchPad, even in its current state incredibly enticing, I'm convinced a tablet would be huge boon for personal and work life. I just can't justify spending the $600 in a speculative manner, no matter how much I want the TouchPad to succeed. If I [u]knew[/you] the TouchPad would have the features I need by, say, October, it'd be good. I don't have that assurance, short of evidence from HP, and the iPad would get me a baseline from which I could re-evaluate in a year or two.